Jobs for Physics Grads
Feb. 13th, 2026 11:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
disappointed_lesbianI'm having a difficult time just thinking of how to word this. Blinding resentment is impeding me.
Somehow I ended up researching careers for physics degree holders again this evening. The advice I saw many times, years ago when I was closer to graduation, was that physics grads can do more or less anything, get more or less any entry-level office or STEM-related job, with, perhaps, a little bit of extra study. That's a goddamned lie. It was then and it is even moreso now.
What gets people jobs is social connections. Looking back on my life, I can marvel at how little this was mentioned. In all my years of education, work readiness programs, etc., there was almost no mention of the importance of social connections. I knew that references were important, but I never knew just how important. It's like people just take it for granted.
This is basically a form of employment and education discrimination. (Getting into grad school also requires social connections, although those references don't seem as important; then again, grad school applications involve more sources of applicant information than job applications, so it seems sensible that academic references wouldn't weigh as much.) And it is, or seems to be, a broadly accepted, even taken-for-granted, form of discrimination. That makes it seem more difficult to overturn. Not that I intend to try to overturn it; I am too exhausted with all the other shitty hands I've been dealt.
I need to start studying. Yesterday and today, I took days off from learning new Mandarin vocab. I haven't been able to focus. When I finally die, I'll never have to worry about being tired and underslept ever again. I'd never wake up too early ever again, never again wake to the depressing fact that I'd have to navigate yet another day with insufficient energy, insufficient focus, and insomnia-induced ibs pain or discomfort.
I'm not just having problems focusing tonight; everything seems pointless. Or takes more energy than I have. Doing stuff is for people who have hope.
I'm going to have to go back to sleeping right next to the heater. I've been no more than ten feet away from it these past few nights, but I've still been too cold to sleep.
Somehow I ended up researching careers for physics degree holders again this evening. The advice I saw many times, years ago when I was closer to graduation, was that physics grads can do more or less anything, get more or less any entry-level office or STEM-related job, with, perhaps, a little bit of extra study. That's a goddamned lie. It was then and it is even moreso now.
What gets people jobs is social connections. Looking back on my life, I can marvel at how little this was mentioned. In all my years of education, work readiness programs, etc., there was almost no mention of the importance of social connections. I knew that references were important, but I never knew just how important. It's like people just take it for granted.
This is basically a form of employment and education discrimination. (Getting into grad school also requires social connections, although those references don't seem as important; then again, grad school applications involve more sources of applicant information than job applications, so it seems sensible that academic references wouldn't weigh as much.) And it is, or seems to be, a broadly accepted, even taken-for-granted, form of discrimination. That makes it seem more difficult to overturn. Not that I intend to try to overturn it; I am too exhausted with all the other shitty hands I've been dealt.
I need to start studying. Yesterday and today, I took days off from learning new Mandarin vocab. I haven't been able to focus. When I finally die, I'll never have to worry about being tired and underslept ever again. I'd never wake up too early ever again, never again wake to the depressing fact that I'd have to navigate yet another day with insufficient energy, insufficient focus, and insomnia-induced ibs pain or discomfort.
I'm not just having problems focusing tonight; everything seems pointless. Or takes more energy than I have. Doing stuff is for people who have hope.
I'm going to have to go back to sleeping right next to the heater. I've been no more than ten feet away from it these past few nights, but I've still been too cold to sleep.
